The world's largest retailer is extremely competitive about the biggest shopping day of the year. Its strategy for ensuring you shop there instead of competitors like Target, Toys R' Us, and Best Buy is threefold: offer the products you want at the lowest price, guarantee the availability of the most sought-after items, and throw in some fun with "Manager's Specials," which vary by store.

For Walmart, the process of planning for "the Super Bowl of retail" actually began 52 weeks ago, Steve Bratspies, executive vice president of general merchandise for Walmart U.S., said Tuesday during a media tour of the North Bergen, N.J. Walmart store. The company started planning for this year's promotion on the Monday morning after last year's Black Friday sale. The team goes through what it calls a "correction of errors" process, talking about what worked, what didn't, and — most importantly — how it can improve.

One of the biggest problems in the past is that Walmart simply didn't have enough stock of the hottest items to meet demand. Products sold out at lightning speed, then customers would come in to get the advertised deal, and it would no longer be available.

"When we talk to customers … the No. 1 complaint they have is — 'I didn't get what I wanted, I couldn't get what I wanted,'" Bratspies said.

Walmart thinks it has the solution with its newly expanded "one-hour guarantee" event, which ensures consumers can snag certain items in-store during a one-hour period. The company last year offered the guarantee on three products, but this year it's expanding the promotion to 21 items, including a $688 60-inch Smart LED 1080p HDTV from Vizio, the 16GB Wi-Fi non-Retina iPad mini for $299 (which comes with a $100 Walmart gift card), and a $98 Funai 32-inch LED 720p HDTV.

Customers will need to be in designated lines at Walmart between 6 and 7 p.m. or 8 and 9 p.m. local time on Thanksgiving Day to guarantee they will receive the item either that night or before Christmas. For a complete list of items included in the one-hour guarantee, check out Walmart's announcement.

Walmart has also upped its Black Friday TV inventory by 65 percent compared to last year and secured two times as many tablets. While the PlayStation 4 is currently sold out at Walmart, the retailer has inventory of the next-gen console set aside for Black Friday, according to Laura Phillips, senior vice president of Entertainment for Walmart U.S.

"We have worked with Sony to have allocation for Black Friday," Phillips said. "We are holding it now, and we will be distributing it into stores and they'll hold it for the Black Friday event." Walmart also has Xbox One shipments coming in for Black Friday.

Electronics are "by far" the best-selling product category for Walmart on Black Friday, Bratspies said. On the tech front, the company expects the iPad mini to be one of the biggest sellers, along with the $98 32-inch Funai HDTV, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and Beats by Dr. Dre Headphones.

Last year on Thanksgiving Day, Walmart processed nearly 10 million register transactions and almost 5,000 items per second during the high-traffic period from 8 p.m. through midnight, executives said. During that three-hour window, the company sold 1.3 million televisions, 1.8 million towels, and 1.3 million dolls.

This year, the Black Friday fun starts a week early at Walmart. The retailer will kick-off the savings this Friday, lowering the prices on popular toys and electronics to match select Black Friday offers from Target, Toys R' Us, and Best Buy one week early. The official Walmart Black Friday events will take place at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 29.

Manager's Specials will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time on Friday. Customers need to "like" the Facebook page for their local store to see details.

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of West Virginia University's Perely Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
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